Australia limits public gatherings to only two people
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Australian officials will use fines and the threat of jail to enforce a new rule limiting public gatherings to two people, as the country’s coronavirus infection rate slowed but the death toll crept higher.
New South Wales and Victoria, the country’s two most populous states, will introduce the penalties from midnight on Monday to enforce national rules set by the federal government on Sunday.
Australia is strengthening limited contact rules for the public as it seeks to capitalize on a slowdown in the growth of new coronavirus cases.
Officials said the rate of new infections has halved in the past week under existing restrictions on movement to about 4,200 people nationally, while the death toll rose to 17.
“It is only in exceptional circumstances that you should leave home,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in Sydney. “We will get through this. We are in a position now which allows us to control the spread as much as possible.”
Amid an extraordinary shutdown of businesses and resulting staff layoffs, Australia’s regulators and banks have taken measures to pause loan repayments for six months, hoping to “hibernate” businesses until the crisis ends.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a six-month moratorium on landlords evicting renters on Sunday and urged businesses to hold off on more job cuts until he unveiled a third stimulus package. Two sources with knowledge of the package said that would be released later on Monday and would include wage subsidies for people who have been laid off.
The government and the country’s central bank have already announced stimulus packages worth around A$190 billion as the country heads for its first recession in almost three decades.
